Josh Pate has a five-to-ten-year plan for himself, and it looks a lot like the one Pat McAfee has already run.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Front Office Sports<\/a>, Pate was asked if McAfee\u2019s setup at ESPN, where an independently owned show got folded into the network and turned into one of its biggest platforms, is the model he\u2019s chasing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you combine that\u2026 year-round college football being viable and then just sports media as a concept being presented in practice the way Pat has done it, I think that there is no ceiling on what you\u2019re allowed to do, what you\u2019re capable of doing,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difference now is when you shake up that Coke bottle, that\u2019s great and all, but you still got to twist the top. And when you have people, you know, like the folks we work with at ESPN willing to twist the top, well, then it\u2019s up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n ESPN signed Pate as a college football contributor before the 2025 season, and by January, Front Office Sports reported<\/a> that network executives wanted to expand his role<\/a> after just one season. ESPN\u2019s Mike Foss told FOS at the time that the network wanted to \u201cfind a world where he\u2019s a part of it\u201d going forward, and sources indicated Pate was set up to make millions annually as his profile kept climbing. Part of the push, according to that report, traced back to ESPN president of content Burke Magnus feeling the network had long under-covered a sport that trails only the NFL in national ratings.<\/p>\n Pate\u2019s path there looks nothing like McAfee\u2019s, though. McAfee ran his show independently for years before ESPN bought all the way in and rebuilt chunks of its football coverage around him. Pate has done the opposite, spreading himself across as many partners as possible instead of picking one. He started Late Kick in Columbus, Georgia, took it to 247Sports in 2020, moved it to CBS Sports as Josh Pate\u2019s College Football Show in 2024, then licensed it to On3 and Yahoo Sports<\/a> in 2025 while also launching a separate show<\/a>, The Locker Room: CFB, with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan under the Bussin\u2019 With the Boys banner.<\/p>\n The ESPN contributor role got added on top of all of it, not built to replace any single piece. When a fan on X suggested in January that Pate could follow McAfee\u2019s path while staying independent, Pate confirmed that was exactly the plan, replying that he had \u201czero plans to leave YouTube or change the show in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n Thank you sir \ud83e\udd1d Zero plans to leave YouTube or change the show in any way https:\/\/t.co\/TTlP1sRITw<\/a><\/p>\n